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Friday, December 27, 2013

It
seems each year there is one gift that defines Christmas for me.God knows how I delight in surprises, so it
is often unexpected, unplanned and wrapped in such a way I would never guess
its contents.It is only after the
hustle and bustle and dust of the season settles that I reflect on days past
and discover this special gift shining above all others--much like that
Bethlehem star that led to the Christ-child long, long ago.

This Christmas of 2013 was no
different.

My gift was dropped into a busy
Friday before Christmas--a day that began with travel out of town to my
grand-daughter's first Christmas program, returning home and scurrying to make
last minute preparations for our family gathering the following day, all amidst
my daughter's thirtieth birthday celebration.Hardly the place nor the time to unwrap a gift as I was driving, eating,
packing, buying, loading, wrapping, cooking, cleaning, celebrating....

In fact, I would have missed this
gift altogether had it not been for the persistence of my daughter in this
being the purpose for her trip to town with her two year old daughter.The tragic near drowning of our friend's two
year old daughter that had left her with numerous impairments and disabilities
had struck a tender chord in her own mother's heart as it had in so many
others. So on the downside of a long,
busy day, the three of us--mother, daughter, grand-daughter--arrived bearing
gifts and were greeted warmly by the same three generations.Little did I know that I would be the one on
the receiving end.

As I sat on the floor in the middle
of bags, bows, tissue paper, toys, torn wrapping paper,Christmas decorations and two blonde-haired,
blue-eyed little girls, God delivered His Christmas gift to me. His gifts,
though not tangible, are eternal and transforming, reaching deep within the
soul.As the Psalmist says, "They
are more precious than gold, than much pure gold" and always reveal the
mysteries of Jesus.He gives them
generously, yet holds them until the heart is right for the pondering and
cherishing.I thought about the first
Christmas gift He gave and the crowded inn, the stable, the noise and the
"clutter" surrounding the birth of Jesus.And in that small, crowded, cluttered, noisy
room--and in a slice of time from eternity--God revealed Jesus as I unwrapped
the gift and beheld true contentment.

Contentment is defined as "not
desiring something more or different; happy enough with what one has or is;
satisfied."Nothing more clearly
describes what I witnessed in that moment.The Christmas gift of 2013 was all wrapped up in a two year old blonde,
blue-eyed child and tied securely with contentment.May I re-gift it many times over, in any and
every situation, all the days yet to be lived for Him.